Program

The Los Padrinos Del Norte Foundation is involved in the following areas:

Education

At present, our activities are limited to the following. In September at the start of each school year, we distribute school books and pencils to children in several small cities neighbouring Sosua as well as in the city’s suburbs. We have also contributed to the renovation of a small country school house.

Quality of the environment

Because the environment and living conditions have a direct impact on health and quality of life, we rented trucks and with the help of the citizens of a small village called El Tablon, we cleaned the beach where the village children spend hours playing.

This beach was unfortunately too often used as a dump and represented contamination risks for the children. Since that day, the residents have maintained the cleanliness of this small beach to the great delight and benefit of the children.

In another town, La Piedra, we contributed to the purchasing of material to maintain 4 small incinerators used for waste disposal; the garbage was previously thrown in the ocean.

Safety

In order to prevent injuries, we bought materials, sand, gravel and cement for some the regions of La Union and El Tablon. These materials were used in the construction of sidewalks and staircases greatly increasing the safety for the inhabitants of these two regions.

Since spacing between houses is barely four feet and all is on naked ground which quickly becomes muddy with rainwater, the sidewalks will facilitate the drainage of water; this will decrease the risk of accidents as well as significantly reduce the propagation of the bacteria.

Health

In order to obtain and deliver a variety of medical products to the Dominican Republic, we are presently in discussions with Montreal based pharmaceutical companies.

Through our undertakings we have managed to secure the use of a school as well as gain the help of doctors and nurses of Puerto Plata. They have agreed to volunteer some of their time for the examination and treatment of children which are exposed to several parasites, children who do not have the possibility or the means of being properly look after. We use busses for rural areas.

Sports

We have provided to the Villa Emmanuel de Belle Visita baseball league: 72 uniforms, 36 baseball gloves and two complete catcher equipments. Moreover we equipped a league with basketball uniforms in Charamico.

Christmas

This all started at Christmas 2001 when we personally got involved with a group of ex patriots and a few Dominican friends. We contributed to a small local fund and purchased Christmas toys for a few very poor families.

When we went around distributing these toys and saw the joy on these children’s faces, it moved us deeply and brought tears to our eyes. That is when the foundation was born.

For the past 4 years the foundation has continued purchasing and distributing Christmas gifts to children who would otherwise have none.